Career
A founding settler of Concord, Massachusetts, he is best known for securing the release of Mary Rowlandson from Indian captivity at Redemption Rock. The event was depicted in the best selling book The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mistress Mary Rowlandson.
Hoar, a prominent lawyer and Indian missionary, was requested by the Review
Rowlandson to act as the colonial representative in the negotiation for her release.
Hoar departed Lancaster on April 28, 1676 with two native guides, Nepphonet and Peter Tatatiquinea to meet King Philip"s War party at Wachusett Lake, located in what is now Princeton, Massachusetts. On May 2, after eleven weeks in captivity, Rowlandson was released to Hoar for a £20 ransom at the glacial stone outcropping known today as Redemption Rock.
Rowlandson would go on to write a famous narrative of her experience as a captive, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mistress Mary Rowlandson which became a bestseller throughout the English speaking world.
lieutenant is considered to be a seminal work in the American literary genre of captivity narratives and also ranks as the first published book written by a colonial American woman.
John Hoar was born in 1622 in Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England. He died on 2 April 1704 in Concord, Middlesex Company, Massachusetts. Robert Sidney was coincidentally granted the title of Viscount Lisle on 4 May 1605, allowing the "Lisle" title to be passed on through to his descendants, adding further confusion for researchers in search of the identity of Hoar"s wife.
Currently, no physical or reliable evidence exists providing John Hoar"s wife"s maiden name, as many early records from the Concord colony have been lost.
Their children were Mary, Elizabeth, Joanna, and Daniel.